The “ivity” Principles

I have three beliefs that guide my life and business. I call them the “ivity principles.”  They are: 

Productivity breeds productivity. 

Activity creates activity.  

Positivity inspires positivity.  

Three simple principles. Now let’s expand on each. 

Productivity Breeds Productivity 

Ever notice you have days where you get nothing accomplished, while on other days you should be earning overtime pay you’re so productive?  That’s because productivity yields greater productivity.

If you’re like me, you probably have a dozen half-finished projects. Before you start another, go back and finish what you started. 

Crossing stuff off the list will put you in a rhythm of productivity.  It’s sort of like basketball — sometimes you need to put in a few layups to get your shooting stroke dialed in.  Same goes for you and your output!   

Accomplishment has a funny way of feeding off itself.

Activity Creates Activity 

I’m not superstitious but I absolutely believe the world rewards activity. 

You’ve heard that old thing about animals knowing when you’re scared of them, right? It’s the same thing with the universe and you — it knows when you’re being a slug and it punishes you.  Conversely, the universe rewards activity with more activity.  

This doesn’t mean making yourself busy for the sake of being busy.  Your actions must be productive actions.  Look at activity as investing. Your time and energy are like dollars.  How can you invest those dollars of time and energy for a future return?  

I focus activity on things like learning, reading, property improvements, business cultivation, and creating new offerings for my business.  How are you investing your activity for a profitable tomorrow?  Stagnation is slow death!  

Positivity Inspires Positivity

The world can be a very negative place. The media peddles negativity 24/7.  Half your co-workers, several of your acquaintances, and more than a few of your relatives are Negative Nancys too. 

Some of them are such awful people, they want you to fail. They won’t say this to your face, but they wish it upon you.  Worse yet, they work covertly to drag you down.  

They don’t care to be positive and accomplished themselves, that requires effort.  Easier — and in a very demented way, more rewarding — to bring negativity to you.  You have two choices in life: when negativity bangs on your door, you can open it up and let it in, or you can slam the door in its face.  

It’s not easy staying positive.  We don’t live and work in a Disney movie, after all. But in my 50 years I’ve learned the value of severing toxic relationships and limiting my exposure to the negative forces that surround us all. 

Positive results come to positive people — especially productively active people. 

The Ivities

Now you know the “ivity” principles.  They’re simple, admittedly, but then most things in life generally aren’t as complicated as we make them out to be. Now go be positively and productively active, you’ll be amazed at the results! 

Damian Mason is a keynote speaker, author, businessman, Agriculturalist, and podcaster.  Find him at www.damianmason.com .

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